Fishing Back When - Written by past contributor Charles Piatt from the May 1989 National Fisherman.
At Mobile, Ala., Bender Shipbuilding and Repair's John Logan reports the yard has its two biggest conversion jobs in progress. Both the big fish boats, he says, will go to repeat customer Arctic Alaska of Seattle.
In July, Bender is to deliver the 5,800-h.p., 275' x 44' catcher/processor Kodiak Enterprise, a conversion of the 212' oil supply boat Ocean King. Newly outfitted with Rapp Hydema trawl winches and Sab-roe refrigeration, the vessel will pack surimi, fillets, and headed-and-gutted (H&G) fish.
The Kodiak Enterprise will draw electrical power from a Cat 3516-driven 1,440-kw genset backed up by two Cat 3508s, each turning a 715-kw generator. The 275-footer also has a 150-kw emergency generator driven by a Detroit Diesel 8V-71. Says Logan, "It's the most electrical generating capacity we've ever put in a boat." The vessel's hydraulic system, which includes three net reels, is powered by eight electric-motor-driven pumps. Among the processing gear on board are two 50,000 gal./ day Meco water makers, Baader cutting machines, Flohr conveyors, and a Japanese surimi plant.
Due out of the Bender yard in 1990 is the company's biggest fish boat conversion, the 304' Island Enterprise, which is based on the 295' cargo ship Island Hope. This project includes an overhaul of the vessel's 3,600-h.p.
A few miles south of Theodore, Ala., on the Fowl River, Nathaniel Zirlott and his son Gene have a lot of wooden-boat repair scheduled for their single railway. Further, Gene reports, the yard has bids out on the construction of a 65' steel shrimper, which would be the Zirlott's first steel boat, and two 55' wood longliners.
If father and son win the contract for longliners, the boats will be based on the Zirlott-designed hull that Nathaniel has built for 30 years. The last one he launched was the Captain Randy, a 54' shrimper delivered in 1988 to Anthony Barbour of Bayou La Batre, Ala.
Major repair work underway this spring at the Zirlott yard includes fitting a new stem and installing bow planking on a 25-year-old, 50' shrimper owned by Benny Thompson of Bayou La Batre. In February, Nathaniel had his five-man crew at a dock in.
Bayou La Batre is putting a two-layer plywood deck in the Vergi M. The 90' x 24' wooden boat was designed by naval architect Oliver Bryant of Pascagoula, Miss. She features some massive scantlings, including a 12" x 18" keel, a 12"' x 24"' stem and 2 3/8" juniper planking. Gene Zirlott says the vessel was never finished and came to the Cummins Finance Co. as an open hull. The Vergi M is now for sale.
At Panhandle Custom Marine on the west side of Panama City, Fla., owner Jimmy Robbins reports a steady flow of repair work and says he is averaging some 300 haul outs yearly with his 60-ton Marine Travelift.
Robbins also has a 63' x 20'6"head boat under construction for a New York customer, who is powering it with twin Detroit 12V-71TIs. Scheduled for July delivery, the vessel is getting 2 1/2'' stainless shafts, Twin Disc 2:1 gears, and Michigan 32" wheels. She will carry 1,800 gals. of fuel in aluminum tanks.
Robbins, who builds to 78' in glass and can turn out plank-on-frame boats to 75' launched his last fishing vessel, the 55' tuna longliner Black 'N Blue, back in 1987 for a repeat customer from Jacksonville, Fla.
Since then, three of Robbins' boats, all in the 65' class, have gone to head boat operators.
A fourth vessel went to a North Carolina sportsman.
Located on St. Andrews Bay, Panhandle Custom Marine repairs in wood, steel, glass, and aluminum, which Robbins has also used to build the superstructures on a few of his recent head boats.
